Methinks "sewing kit" is going to enter the vernacular to describe anything small and delicate and simple that handily defeats anything big and brutish and complicated. Sort of like David and Goliath, only inanimate.

And this is the rah-rah pro-corporate-terror-industry publication that censors comments, just like Blogger Bog.

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Onions have layers. Onions... and ogres.

Shrek: For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think. Donkey: Example? Shrek: Example... uh... ogres are like onions!
[holds up an onion, which Donkey sniffs] Donkey: They stink? Shrek: Yes... No! Donkey: Oh, they make you cry? Shrek: No! Donkey: Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs... Shrek: [peels an onion] NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
[walks off] Donkey: Oh, you both have LAYERS. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. What about cake? Everybody loves cake! Shrek: I don't care what everyone else likes! Ogres are not like cakes. Donkey: You know what ELSE everybody likes? Parfaits! Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "(expletive deleted) no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious! Shrek: NO! You dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden! Ogres are like onions! End of story! Bye-bye! See ya later. Donkey: Parfait's gotta be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet!

Didn't funding for scanners get cut in the last budget? My recollection was that this last round was pretty much it for the deployment of AIT.

They now want to focus wasting money on newer unproven and worthless systems like optical chemical analyzers to use on water bottles and shoe x-ray systems (aka Buster Brown cancer boxes) that will take years to be exposed as frauds.

By then these suppliers will have robbed the taxpayers of billion$ and TSA will have new set of stupid ideas in the wings.

While I'm hopefully Jon has started the end of this nightmare, part of me fears that with their track record, TSA would simply replace the scanner with something even worse.

Just food for thought: When in history has an organization that based it's power in force and overriding another's will ever disbanded peacefully and without incident?

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TSA is not going to back down. On the contrary, they will redouble their efforts.

People -- and institutions especially -- don't like it to be pointed out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Logic doesn't win; manipulated emotion does. The entire post-9/11 reaction of this country has been manipulated emotion, to the nth degree.

This isn't new. The same techniques -- fear-mongering, propaganda, demonization of The Other and demonization of dissenters -- went on in the run-up to WWI. That historical period, in fact, was when propaganda techniques were perfected.

TSA is not going to back down. On the contrary, they will redouble their efforts.

People -- and institutions especially -- don't like it to be pointed out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Logic doesn't win; manipulated emotion does. The entire post-9/11 reaction of this country has been manipulated emotion, to the nth degree.

This isn't new. The same techniques -- fear-mongering, propaganda, demonization of The Other and demonization of dissenters -- went on in the run-up to WWI. That historical period, in fact, was when propaganda techniques were perfected.

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Not only but there's also a lot of money involved here. Security is a business despite fancy worded statements and other fronts, it's about money and DHS/TSA is chomping at a pile-load of it. I doubt the power-that-be in this organization is going to give up their golden cache easily.